Fearing Exposure, Authorities Threaten to Arrest People Attending the Trial of a Falun Gong Practitioner

Pingdu City Court sent a summons to Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Wang Guangwei’s family on July 19th, 2012 announcing that his trial had been scheduled for 2 p.m., on July 27th. However, in just four days, the court decided to postpone the trial and informed the defence lawyers on July 25th because they were afraid that people attending the trial would hear them enter an innocent plea. The Pingdu 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and Pingdu Domestic Security threatened to arrest whoever attended the trial.

Some evildoers falsely accused Wang Guangwei, from Pingdu, on March 14th, 2012. The Landi Township Police Department of Pingdu City then arrested Mr. Wang and ransacked his home. He has been incarcerated at Pingdu Detention Centre ever since. On that same evening, Liu Jie threw Mr. Wang onto the ground and then kicked his thighs and hit his face with books, and tortured him for over an hour.

On July 13th, Mr. Wang was sued by the Pingdu City Procuratorate, and the court decided that the trial would be at 2 p.m. on July 27th. However, after local 610 Office personnel heard that a large number of people had received invitations to attend the trial and that Mr. Wang’s defence lawyers, Dong Qianyong and Lan Zhixue, would enter an innocent plea, they immediately went to various towns and villages to investigate the source of the invitations. Those invitations were then snatched from people’s hands and the officers threatened to arrest whoever planned to appear in court that day, including Mr. Wang’s relatives. As a result, some people changed their mind, even though they had originally planned to attend, because they were afraid of retaliation. In addition, the vicious officers threatened Mr. Wang’s wife and neighbours, stating that if he continued to practice Falun Gong, their son would not be allowed to enter college.

Defence lawyer Lan Zhixue requested that the court postpone the trial because he had another trial scheduled on the same day, but the judge in charge of the case, Liu Jianguo, denied his request. However, three days later and less than two days before the trial, Judge Liu suddenly contacted Lan Zhixue to inform him that they had agreed to postpone the trial.

The reason behind the original postponement was the 610 Office did not want people attending the trial to know the truth behind their falsified charges. Some of those who had received the original invitations went to the court at 2 p.m. on July 27th as originally scheduled, because they did not know that the trial had been postponed.

According to witnesses, the court was heavily guarded by plain-clothes police officers. They talked to the ordinary citizens who planned to attend the trial and attempted to coerce them into leaving. At around 2:30, Dai Yugang, from the Pingdu City 610 Office, and a vicious female police officer arrived and started yelling at people waiting there to move-away from the entrance and forced them to leave the area quickly. They forcibly grabbed the key away from the owner of an electric motorcycle and searched a senior’s pockets, asking why he was there. Dai Yugang tried to convince the crowd that “The defence lawyers took 30,000 yuan¹ from Wang and ran away and will not defend him anymore.”

Perpetrators Involved in the Persecution
Liu Jianguo, judge: +86-13969632777
Dai Yugang, deputy head of Pingdu 610 Office: +86-532-87309201
Tang Longwen, head of Pingdu Police Department: +86-13606306367, +86-532-87206528 (Home)
Mo Zhuping, head of Domestic Security Team: +86-13806395321

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.